Hi,
I had a personal debt of 26K approx owed to a large University for education costs. During the period of education I managed to pay off over half of the debt (approx 15k) but then fell seriously ill which rendered me unable to keep up payments with only intermittent payments made. Then a second bout of illness got me and I was unfit to make payments for almost 8 months. The University in question, hired a collections company they work with to collect the remaining debt (approx 8.5K). I worked with the collections company for months making monthly 300euro payments to take the debt down to 5K. Then the company I worked for had a reduction in force and I was let go. I tried continuing to make payments of up to 100 per month even then and recently was not in a position too commit anything to the collections company. They have decided not to accept this and have sought approval from the University to do a credit check on me and to proceed to court proceedings for recovery of the remaining balance or to have a bad credit rating put on record for me. I don't have any funds available to me over and above a part time wage which barely gets me by every month - which is a concern because the collections company warned me that I could be liable for court costs aswell.
Is anyone familiar with the actions of collections companies and how seriously I should consider their response?
What happens if it goes to court?
Would there be any consideration give to the fact that I have payed the majority of the debt? Or does this matter?
Do you think I should contact the University directly to try and re-engage them? Considering they have all the history of my payments and history of my relationship with the collections company.
Thanks,
Nanogoo.
I had a personal debt of 26K approx owed to a large University for education costs. During the period of education I managed to pay off over half of the debt (approx 15k) but then fell seriously ill which rendered me unable to keep up payments with only intermittent payments made. Then a second bout of illness got me and I was unfit to make payments for almost 8 months. The University in question, hired a collections company they work with to collect the remaining debt (approx 8.5K). I worked with the collections company for months making monthly 300euro payments to take the debt down to 5K. Then the company I worked for had a reduction in force and I was let go. I tried continuing to make payments of up to 100 per month even then and recently was not in a position too commit anything to the collections company. They have decided not to accept this and have sought approval from the University to do a credit check on me and to proceed to court proceedings for recovery of the remaining balance or to have a bad credit rating put on record for me. I don't have any funds available to me over and above a part time wage which barely gets me by every month - which is a concern because the collections company warned me that I could be liable for court costs aswell.
Is anyone familiar with the actions of collections companies and how seriously I should consider their response?
What happens if it goes to court?
Would there be any consideration give to the fact that I have payed the majority of the debt? Or does this matter?
Do you think I should contact the University directly to try and re-engage them? Considering they have all the history of my payments and history of my relationship with the collections company.
Thanks,
Nanogoo.
